As the first step to building a relationship with consumer groups, the CR Office held a few opinion exchange sessions. In September 2011, the Office welcomed the staff of the Kansai branch of the Japan Association of Consumer Affairs Specialists to the Higashinada plant of Nisshin Flour Milling Inc. Also, in November 2011, the members of a diet study group from the East Japan branch of the Nippon Association of Consumer Specialists were invited to the Tsurumi plant.

In the plant tour, adequate time was set aside to answer consumer queries and also for consumer feedback. Consumers were given the opportunity to taste some samples of baked breads to understand the processing suitability between domestic wheat and imported wheat.

In June 2012, the company held a consumer education seminar, a cooperative event with the Fukuoka Consumer Affairs Center. The first half of the seminar dealt with “the story of wheat flour,” which described the trends in the production and demand of wheat and flour together with product safety. The second half of the seminar was a cooking lesson featuring a teacher from our homemade flour cooking class.

Prop Station, a social welfare organization, launched the Kobe Sweets Consortium (KSC) in June 2008 with a mission to “Produce a workforce of the challenged (disabled people) who play an active part in the pastry industry.” Nisshin Seifun actively supports this project and helps KSC find various supporters, such as social welfare corporations, governments, manufacturers, and wholesalers.

In addition to supplying raw materials, Nisshin Seifun, which handles wheat flour essential for making sweets, supplies event sites and technical staff as a behind-the-scene supporter who creates a better environment where patissiers and students serving as lecturers are easy to work. Thus, Nisshin Seifun strives to ensure that wheat flour, raw materials, transforming into every food plays the role of linking the challenged and the society.

In 2011, a remote workshop was organized by using cloud computing and broadband networks. Thus, challenged people from three different locations (Kobe, Okayama, and Aichi) were able to learn simultaneously through the transmission of images of one of the other event sites.

The Nisshin Seifun Group participated in one of the largest environmental exhibitions “Eco-Products 2011—Japan's first!—Change tomorrow by eco-power” held in December 2011 at Tokyo Big Site (Koto Ward, Tokyo). Nearly 180,000 people visited the exhibition, slightly lower than the number of people in the previous year; however, nearly 4,000 people visited Nisshin Seifun Group's booth, more than the number of people who visited the booth in the previous exhibition.

The booth resembled a cafe and showed the relationship between wheat flour and the environment. The booth's theme was “Let's begin our eco-action from food (wheat flour) as well as products and power-saving recipes by considering the environment.”

The Group has an environmental education program that establishes a close relationship between wheat flour and the lives of children from elementary schools and junior high schools.

The Green Lane Diary is a school-based education program to help children become aware of environmental issues and how positive action makes a difference first hand hosted by Green Cross Japan.

The Group has also been cooperating with the “Green Lane Diary” since 2010.

The company has been cooperating with the “All-Japan Student Environmental Business Contest” organized by the student environment NPO “em factory” since FY2006. After the contest, environmental staff and students interact with each other on the basis of a plan proposed by students.

Through a questionnaire survey that was targeted at individual shareholders of the Nisshin Seifun Group, it was found that many people were hoping to visit the Group's factories. Thus, plant visits for individual shareholders are being organized. The first tour was made to the Higashinada plant of Nisshin Flour Milling Inc. on March 12, 2012. The shareholders saw the production process—from the delivery of wheat to the manufacturing and the shipment of flour. Many shareholders stated that the visit helped them to better understand the company. In addition, after the plant visit, the shareholders offered their valuable opinions during the interactive session.